A 33 year-old man has been detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act following an incident in Anfield yesterday, Thursday 11th August.
We were called at 5.35pm to Arkles Lane to a report of a man walking towards the junction with Priory Road and onto Ince Avenue, shouting at people and carrying what was described as a machete.
It was reported he assaulted a number of people, causing some slash wounds. All the victims attended hospital. None are believed to have sustained life-threatening injuries.
The suspect was arrested in Stanley Park on suspicion of attempted murder
A 48 year-old man suffered injuries to his head, arms and hands
A 20 year-old man suffered injuries to his arms
A 62 year-old woman suffered lacerations to her face, neck, body and arms
A 40 year-old man suffered lacerations to his back and arm
The woman remains in hospital.
The suspect was detained a short time later in Stanley Park and arrested on suspicion of four counts of attempted murder.
He has been technically released under investigation to allow further enquiries to be carried out but further detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act.
Detective Inspector Neil Dillon said: “Our investigation is ongoing.
“While we understand how worrying incidents like this are we don’t believe that it was terror-related and a man is currently detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act as we continue with the investigation.
“I would ask for anyone who was in the area of Priory Road or Ince Avenue yesterday who saw or heard anything and hasn’t already spoken to police to come forward as a matter of urgency.”
Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank members of the public who bravely intervened despite the obvious dangers that they were facing and also managed to quickly alert others to the situation that was unravelling.
“I believe it is thanks to their quick thinking and brave actions that this incident was able to be dealt with swiftly and without further injury. We are supporting all those victims and their families who have been injured and impacted on during this distressing incident for all the local community.
“Our specialist officers were deployed and were able to detain the male promptly and bring the situation under control. They have to face dangers every day and their actions during this incident further demonstrates their dedication and personal commitment to protect members of the public.”
“I am very proud of the public and our Merseyside Police colleagues in how they resolved quickly this very difficult, violent and challenging circumstances they were presented with.”
A mum described her horror after a man swung a machete at her eight-year-old son who ducked at the last second to avoid the blade slicing into his head.
The primary school pupil, who lives off Arkles Lane in Anfield, was left with a small graze where the fearsome weapon nicked the back of his head. Witnesses said that the machete was swung with such force it “would have killed him” had the blow connected.
She said: “He had been in the chippy for a drink and he was just coming home from playing with his friend. He was riding his bike and the man said ‘do you want to get machetied?”
“He’s swung the machete and he ducked, he’s got a little cut on the back of his head. Carl from the pub grabbed him and pulled him inside and locked the doors.”
Kim Ngau, 45, who runs Kim’s Anfield Supper Bar on Anfield Road, said the boy and his friends had been in to buy a drink while they played out in the sunshine minutes before the incident. She said: “He’s lovely, properly lovely. Everyone around here knows him and they all love him.
“Around two or three minutes after the kids were in I heard the people from the pub over the road. I went over and they said a guy with a machete had swung it at [the boy]. It’s just madness isn’t it.”
Another witness to the incident was Jeanette Murton, 48, who was sitting on her front step close to the junction of Miriam Road and Anfield Road, when her 28-year-old son saw the armed man. She said: “There was a little lad who lives in the road, I just remember him taking his top off because it was so hot, and then I heard my son say “what the f*** are you doing you t***?”
A neighbour of the man understood to be in custody said she saw police entering his house late last night. She said: “He was a very quiet man. He’s lived here a while, it was before lockdown he moved in. I only knew him to say hello to really. He was always very polite.
“He was always on his own. I think he used to fix bikes, that was his business. When I heard it was him I didn’t believe it, I said ‘no not him, it can’t be’. He was a nice neighbour, he would do the weeding on his front and then offer to do his neighbour’s .
“He was well into his conspiracy theories, he loved all that. I think he believed all that. He listened to things on the radio and the internet, weird stuff.”
Merseyside Police confirmed said the force received its first call at 5.30pm from a member of the public, which reported a man with a machete walking along Priory Road and Utting Avenue shouting at people. A man is understood to have been attacked at a bus-stop on Utting Avenue.
The final victim, the 62-year-old woman, was seen emerging “in a pool of blood” after the man entered her house. She was helped by members of the public before being rushed to hospital.
A blood-stained machete with the message “make love not war” scrawled onto it was found abandoned in Stanley Park.
